Very well said, C3PX.

For me, each prequel movie took two viewings before the unbridled awfulness really sank in. The first time I saw TPM, somehow I managed only to notice the good parts. I kinda wish I'd never watched a second time; as they say, ignorance is bliss, and every time since then that I've watched the pile o' crappage it's produced more cringes than smiles.

Ditto with AOTC. My expectations had been shot so incredibly low by TPM that AOTC somehow managed to exceed them on my first viewing. Second time I watched, I judged it against my own preferences insofar as movies are concerned rather than against its predecessor, and it failed horrendously.

Same phenomenon with ROTS. First viewing, I was pretty happy. Honestly, given the two trainwrecks that comprised its foundation, I can't imagine doing too much better. But as someone once remarked, a house built on a foundation of sand is doomed to fall at the first sign of a storm. Second time I watched it, the cheesiness jumped out at me. I've come to the conclusion that TPM is the best of the three overall and ROTS is the least cringe-producing overall, but at the end of the day they're more irritating that entertaining both as individual movies and as a trilogy. The fact that it's Star Wars that was butchered so badly is just tragic.

I guess you could compare the PT to a really ugly Christmas tree. Turn the lights down and squint, and it might look ok. Open your eyes, and you can't help but notice the bare spots, twisted branches, and dead pine needles.

I first feared that the prequels were suck royally after my second viewing of TPM. I knew it was inevitable after my second viewing of AOTC. When it really made me livid, however, was in 2004 when the prequel crap started invading the OT. That's just unforgivable.